Friday, December 30, 2011

"We are tired of waiting for a trapper, so we accepted you instead" they said.

Actualy, it was really cool. We snuck past the VON3 traps with tactics -- stand against this door and run through it before the trap gets you. Stand very very far away from that door and then go through later. Our stunt-warforged died at each door, but the rest of us were fine until the very last trap.

(Spoilers, obviously)

Endgame: Our supposedly "safe" corner got zapped hard enough to kill everyone but me, the Cleric and someone else. I used my big heal, unyielding Soverignty, to come back from the brink of death. I sprinted forward to buy some time for the Cleric. But the Inevitable ran right past me. Then my Intimidate caught his attention and he came back to fight me. My armor, defensive buffs and all that seemed to be holding.

But then the Inevitable stunned me. I couldn't move, couldn't self-heal, couldn't stop the Inevitable from killing our Cleric.

I can't cast raise dead until I level up so I was stuck with what we had on hand. The Inevitable moves fast and kills quickly. Now there are only three of us. The warforged healer, the necromancer and me. I can't heal the necro so I toss a Lay on Hands at the Warforged, he survives but gets tagged again and runs into the other room to self heal.

The Inevitable chases him, runs past me, and then spins around to fight me instead. My intimidate worked! The warforged caster takes his sweet time healing up, and I get blinded. Apparently, DDO blindness has been upgraded from black screen to white screen. Totaly cooler too.

According to the focus orb, the Inevitable has no HP left! I can't see, but I can tell that I'm losing hitpoints quickly and that my self-heals are still working. A few times I feel confident that my HP are high enough and I take a few swings with my force damage axe. I deal a bit of damage, but strangely the no-HP Inevitable doesn't die! Is it bugged? It should be dead! DIE DIE DIE!

Finaly, my vision clears and the metal giant crashes to the ground with the groan of defeated metal. The Warforged caster posts the killing blow and brags about it. I don't care, I'm just glad we won.

Monday, December 19, 2011

So, I got banned by a self-avowed female and it was super wierd. She banned me in all caps, and with a sort of stilted formal language that reminded me of WWII documentaries about the horrors of the concentration camps.

Am I missing something? I don't play WoW but I know they have even more dramaz than Khyber. Is there some sort of geeky subculture where they complain in Nurenberg-esque language?

Edit: For clarification I should say that the ban she gave me was that I would "henceforth never again be allowed to group with her" and that she would tell the whole server about my infamy. I didn't get for-real-banned. :)

Friday, December 2, 2011

Today I made the transition from easy lowby quests to the cool quests with a splat.

I ran Haywire's Foundry on Elite on my level 10 Paladin. I couldn't hit anything, but boy could they hit me!

But since I was failing so spectacularly, I took a long hard look at my gear. I've been so excited about Greensteel and Subterrane raid loot I haven't bothered to upgrade or replace the stuff I crafted 3 levels ago.

So anyway, I currently have four weapon sets. I use my skeleton beaters on almost everything since the Holy does 2d6 to anything evil, I use a set of Muckdoom & Muckbane for slimes and rusties, Dwarven thrower for marksmanship and foreverything else there's force damage from my Antique Greataxe.

So, you can see how all those warforged and construct dogs were virtualy 100% me-proof. Lucky for me I found that I had pulled a clay gollum beater out of my TR bank. It's a nightforged Warhammer, +5 adamantine and perfect for the quest. I tried pairing it with a skelleton beater, but I got more benefit from using a shield. Trading a to-hit penalty for a bit of AC was nice. I even managed to pull aggro on some of the warforged, including the boss.

But mostly I just drank heal pots and wand whipped. I went through 80 CSW pots and 160 CSW wand charges. At the end of the quest I was totaly out of everything. No lay on hands, no unyielding soverenty, no cure pots, no cure wands, no mana.... nothing! And then I on the escape run I grabbed a soulstone out of a trap and got slain by the trap myself.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Well twice in a row I've been invited to fill the last spot in a an all ranged Pug. We wade into combat and I hear the clinking of crossbows, the whistling of arrows, the spurting of the flame turret, the purple mountain majesty of the force bolts and then, if I'm lucky, I'm zerging fast enough to dive into our firewall and kill-steal one of the walking wounded.

First up we did Gwylan's Stand. I was useful there because I had 50 HP more than the traps could do so I was able to sabotage some hard to reach crates. But then on Stormcleave outpost I was almost entirely useless against the mobs. Sure, I hammered a few wolves to death but for the most part the mobs ignored me except for when my intimidate worked.

Oh, and there was one spot where only the Arcane Archer Ranger and I were able to survive the traps. We were standing on a ramp and got hit with several blinding sleets. I chugged haste pots and tried to chase down the jerk that cast it, but I couldn't make any headway on a slope. Meanwhile the archer was just calmly plinking away with his bow. Gah!

So anyway, it looks like this is how it's gonna be for the next couple of levels. If anyone needs me, I'll be with the firing squad.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

So, now that I've TRed, I get to see what the Carnival looks like to everyone else. It's fun but I miss the Epic! way of doing Big Top (Haste! Jump! Invisibility! GO!)

[Note: the rest of my post was lost in the internet so I'm rewriting it from memory here]

I planned to run Carnival for the bravery bonus, but I leveled up so quickly, and found groups for house P so slowly, that I missed that opportunity. Instead I've been wondering, should I run it now for favor (and free Turbine Points rewards) or should I just run it on Epic! difficulty?

And then, I saw an adorable request for a PUG: I haz gest pass! hrry plz! So then of course I had to go and help them each get an Antique Great Axe. It was great fun, although they would have given up if not for my horse-whisperer style encouragement. "No thanks, I've already got one! <swish swish>" and "It's virtualy guarenteed to drop every 20th run."

The quests in the Phiarlan Carnival are nearly identical. They have very different scenery but all four of them are heavily scripted, with lots of diologue and fancy-pants roleplaying stuff. I'm a fan of real life roleplaying, but I come to DDO for the great looking dungeons and the combat. I was dissapointed that none of the quests had an honest to goodness dungeon to fight in.

But even so, I had fun and enjoyed the jokes and won a suit of the ugliest plate mail ever. And the noobs? They got their axes before their guest passes wore out. :)

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

So, I was finishing the Main Control Room (the lowest room in The Pit) and noticed that the rest of the group was "helping" by getting ripped apart in combat. Then they started dying. I didn't want to spend time looking for them since I knew that they weren't dying anywhere important and they weren't able to communicate their location to me. So on a whim, I told my Hireling to take care of it. To my surprise he sprinted out of the Main Control room and up the spiraling ramp. A miniute or so later he had navagated from the very lowest room to the highest, found the dead pugger and raised him!

Later on, the puggers returned the favor by having their caster raise dead on me, while I was feather falling from the optional chests in room 3. (I died wearing featherfall boots so my ghost couldn't make it all the way down to the ground!) But with some good clicksmanship the pugger got his hireling to raise me and we won....,

Saturday, November 19, 2011

I loved The Pit when I first encountered it because it was one of the few dungeons where I got completely lost -- not just in the Zork I sense of nondiscript "twisty passages all alike" but in the sense that I was navagating a topography that I could not visualize.

But all good things came to an end, and I figured out a series of tricks that would allow me to navagate what I could not conceptualize. Feather Fall SW. Fall down one ramp when you see this land mark. So I put away the Pit and vowed not to return until a distant future when my memory had attrophied or until I was leveling a TR in need of awesome XP.

So last night, after months of anticipation, I returned to The Pit.

My TR needed XP but I was still fairly sure that I knew my way around the Pit. And I did know it. But more surprisingly, the whole thing seemed to make sense. I almost think I could draw a 3d map of the place now from memory. Almost.

Also, last time I ran the Pit I had alot of lag from (what turned out to be a) defective video card. But now with my new video card everything on DDO is smooth and lag free. On the downside that means all the jumps I fail are my own fault. And compared to my Ranger life, my Full Plate wearing Paladin had alot of failed jumps. ;)

I'm sad that my mind has penetrated the mysteries of The Pit -- but it remains the best dungeon ever!

And no, no Muck's Dooms were had, and the pug killed Jubuilex while I was in the furnace room fixing the light we missed. :)

Monday, November 14, 2011

So the forums say my fun is a lie. The forums say that I should be upset and rage quitting and looking foreward to playing a bunch of D&D knockoffs that are limping across the finish line for Christmas.

That's what the forum whiners say. But I say my DDO fun is real! I look forward to playing more and there are no virtual tears in my virtual dwarven beard.

Monday, November 7, 2011

I haven't played f2p house K quests in over a year. My main was level 20 and farming high end content. My alts were favor dashing in the harbor and market place. But now my TR Dwarf Paladin is level 7 and ready to return to House Kundarak.

What a difference a TR makes!

Last time I was here the traps were deadly "These tarps hit for ONEHUNDRED DAMAGE on elite!!!! Truely, these traps must be of Dwarven manufacture!" But this life they're only deadly if I get hit twice in a row.

Last time I had no elemental resistances of my own, but now I've got 30/30/30/30 thanks to the Defenders Guild Airship.

Last time I was always afraid of running into yet another skeleton because my weapons were so cruddy: a flame touched light hammer of bone breaking (i.e. a Dex debuff that skeletons are immune to) and a sonic longsword. Now I've got TWO silver warhammers of Holy undead bane and I wish that DDO had MORE undead. :D

But it's not all good. Last life I had maxed out my jump skill so I could leap out of danger. But this life I've got no jump at all, and heavy plate, and a blend of charisma and strength so when I'm flanked, I gotta cut my way out.

So anyway the story of my hubris and comeuppance:I was on easystreet. I jumpped throught the traps and clobbered everything with my warhammers, which work great on undead and good on anything evil. When my kids woke up, I turned off the computer and switched to my wife's netbook so I could play while I supervised the eating of the baby-safe muffins in the playroom.

Anyway, I was bored out of my skull waiting for the Artificer. She'd fail to disarm the trap, die, res out, and die on the next trap. But was that slow enough? Nooo! Then she stopped to chastise us for trying such an insanely difficult quest. "You're insane! You'll never reach the end!" She screached into the mic while we were, in fact, standing at the end waiting for her to catch up.

So I decided to have a little fun. Feigning ignorance, I asked "What's so hard about this quest? The traps only hit for a hundred damage." That set her off for realz but the babies were making a mess with the baby-muffins so I went afk.

When I returned to a TPK in process. The artificer was unconcious so I sent her my Unyielding Soverignty. After all, the only thing funnier than a 50 HP tough guy is 3000 HP of hjeals. But by mistake I hit myself with the healing and the artificer died, ruining the joke.

Despite my hubris I recognized that this many Drow on an epic quest well above my level was gonna be dangerous. So I backed away, cast a cure on the Monk just before he died and summoned my elemental. But something strange happened.

A webpaged popped up and minimized DDO. It proclamed "Did you know that Hewlet Packard invented the Cloud? Now you can enjoy Hewlet Packard's latest invention for free if you pay now!" I swapped back to DDO and noted with dismay that everyone had died except for me. So I clicked on my Cannith Crystal Summon again and watched the casting animation. I tried to jump away, but my newly TRed Paladin can't jump like he could when he was a Ranger. So I was stuck face to groin with a mob of angry drow cultists. I tried to heal myself but I couldn't. That's when I figured it out. My wife's laptop has a special shift key for F-Keys . While I was trying to send out heals, I was actualy turning down the audio and requesting to learn more about HP cloud.

Awash in knowledge I died.

But it was not all in vain, the artificer had a laugh at our fail, and I hope you, kind reader, have a hoot too.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Got to level 7 on my TR and stayed up all night crafting stuff. First I "ate" my entire library of level 2 tomes that I saved up from my last life. That upgraded my DEX to 19 so I was eligable to take Improved Two Weapon Fighting (TWF) instead of the lame feat I took at level 6. So I had Fred eat that part of my brain and I'm ambidexterous! Except that I don't have any good TWF weapons apart from my GreenSteel. So I made a pair of Holy Silver Warhammers of Undead Bane. That took quite a few trips to the auction house because I ran out of good essences, didn't have two Soulstone: Undead and bought two Soulstone: lesser undead instead.

Well at that point it was waaay past my bedtime, but I was having so much fun, I figured I may as well upgrade the +1 Full plate I've been trudging around in since Korthos. So, I got some mithral Full Plate from the AH and whaddaya know? It's GREEN WITH GOLD SNAKE TRIM! Which nicely matches a Crown I've got in my TR bank account. So I grab the crown from the bank and notice that I'm high enough level to wear the Golden Cartouche I've been lugging around for a whole lifetime (my previous life did not know UMD). But that means I don't need the Runic Gloves from Korthos and now (ahem) my hands are free!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

It's my first TR. After spending far longer than I intended playing the endgame content I finaly turned in my epic dungeon tokens and TRed. Leveling up from 1 to 3 was much quicker than I remembered. I fell in with a hotshot TR that opened everything on leet for the bravery bonus. I'm planning on running a pure paladin, seems much easier than I remember on my ranger. Not invincible though, as I figured out when a Kobold hit me with Hold Person and let the slimes in Durk's have their way with me. I'm looking forward to getting to cast spells at level 4.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

I chose the Encrusted ring from my 20th TOD run. The other serious contender was the shintao ring, but I already have the Kilau's ring (Ranger Tempest) and I want to feel the power of wearing two ToD rings at the same time.

Oh but what a mess it made of my gear! I equiped it with a belt and lost Heavy fortification and a bunch of other defensive stuff. So I built a new pirate hat with heavy fort. But that cost me my ConOpp item, which is how I get the wisdom to cast my Ranger spells!

I probably could have saved a HoX wipe if I had my old gear on but self healing is not a good trade for Heavy Fort it seems.

Oh well, I was planning on doing a TR anyway. I should do it now before I spend another year getting ready. But first I just need 20 tokens for a bag and then I swear I'll TR.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

I ran HoX and was delighted that there was no lag. I had given up on running raids my lag was so wretched!

Anyway, our leader lead us inexorably to a wipe. What started with "We don't need a bard! Obey me! I am your leader!" ended in "Everyone D Door out NOW! Obey me! I am your leader!" (Seriously, DDoor does not help in Hox! :) )

But I had fun. I even took a moment to hop through the DDoor and kill a big pile of reavers. Then ol Xyzzy herself came racing around the corner and I put on my Royal Guard mask and teleported, then something goes pear shaped!

I don't use feather fall on my Ranger because he's got tumble and self healing. But I do have a clickie on my 30% striders.

Anyway I haven't run Hound of Xoriat in ages and I was very pleased at how much tougher my character is. I was able to easily handle four reavers on my own -- a far cry from last time I was in HoX!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

I've been running my clerics to counter-protest the UI boycott and Artificers are easy to heal! I like that there's no pressure to heal their pets and I like that they always pew-pew-pew from someplace safe and tactical, which is incidently, where I like to park my clerics. That said, I think it's gonna be less fun once I start running higher level clerics. I rely on mass heals to save SP, but the Artificers are all over the map. And from what I remember about my Ranger, ranged gets difficult.

But for my level 7 cleric, nothing is easier than healing an all artificer party.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Crystal Cove sea-shanty music started playing in my head as soon as I read the anouncement. The music makes me smile, it puts a little captain in my step, it makes me do a little jig and it makes me shout "yar" while I chase my kids around the yard. DDO Crystal Cove makes me happy!

But what to craft? I like the idea of finishing my Epic Dueling leathers, that blue slot would be handy! Or I could make an Epic Spyglass for when I TR into something with UMD. Or, I could just cash everything in for air elementals! I dunno, I can't think streight with this sea-shanty blaring in my head. Time to stop typing and start planning my gear.

Monday, September 5, 2011

I don't know how I passed that horrible class. It's certainly not because I learned to Espanol! But somehow it happened and now my life begins again! It's springtime and uh, something about winter too just to get in all four seasons.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

I've fallen asleep while playing Deleria's quest a dozen times. I like the quest, and I always look foward to hearing Gygax's unusual delivery but the dim lighting, the drab stonework and the lack of memorable setpiece battles just knocks me out cold.

Anyway, tonight for the first time in nearly a year, I ran Delera's Tomb again. Somehow it seemed much smaller than I remembered. We were running at level on Normal and the quest just flew by and without any deaths save the super squishy rogue who died despite getting all the healing my level 6 Cleric could bring to bear.

Anyway it was great. I entered Delera's Tomb agitated and insomniatic and exited satiated and sophoric. I look forward to running it again soon. :)

Friday, July 1, 2011

"I feel totaly ripped off. I spent three thousand dollars on remidial Spanish 103 but I got no cosmetics and no Turbine points(tm)" said dissatisfied student and senioritis sufferer Senior Incognito (not his real name). "Furthermore, the Spanish class totaly takes way from my DDO playtime. Spanish 103 is nothing more than a four hour loading screen!"

His esposa disagreed saying "It's your last class before you get your degree! Just focus on passing the class!" Sr. Incognito did not answer. He was daydreaming about crafting two Holy Burst silver Greater Lawful Outsider Banes, or sidestepping the crafting grind by TRing a Palidin.

Friday, June 3, 2011

EVon 6 ended for me en route to the fire base. My darling little baby, who was sleeping peacefully in my left arm kicked my mousehand in her sleep and sent my dwarf careening over the edge to certain doom. It was quite the kick.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

I like CO's cosmetics system. There are lots of of options to make goofy looking toons with bright and bold colors. The noobs were arrayed in all colors but ebony and crimson was an especialy popular color combo.

The wilderness zones remind me of Grand Theft Auto in a good way, lots of themed neighborhoods sectioned off by surreal vertical barriers.

But after being away for a week, I saw DDO with fresh eyes. DDO graphics really shine! My Plate of the Defender, which I have long decried as the ugliest armor ever, never looked so good. I also like that DDO's humanoid models look good and move responsively with a convincing walk cycle.

CO plays like Kobold Assault. In any given area, all the baddies are wimpy clones, but still dangerous because they respawn so quickly. There's no traps and no hazards (like drowning, scalding steam pipes, or death by lava) so you can run around killing and collecting with impunity. It lacks the same quality of player-environment interaction that a good DDO level has.

The difference between F2P models is eye-opening. CO is essentialy offering a demo. Both games allow you to level up to cap on f2p content, but DDO lets you build your character, whereas CO only has pre-built archetypes for you to test drive.

I don't imagine that I'll play CO long term unless they offer a non-subscription way to build your own character. I might start up a few more free accounts so I can make up more superhero costumes.

Friday, May 20, 2011

I was gonna jump into those threads about reballancing Epic loot, but the stuff I care about hasn't come up yet. There's no Dwarf Axe conversations going on, and none of the Epic! items are particularly Tempest rangery. I do enjoy hearing about how other people value Epic! loots.

Currently I can't think of ANY epic item that I want enough to farm. So I'm just working on greensteel at the moment.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

It's my first time so the leader of the PuG sets out a bunch of ground rules. Me and the other evasion guys are going to prep the fire base. No problem, I've done this many times before on lesser difficulties. We zone in and buff. Our leader shouts "EVERYONE go to the firebase and take down the Djin!"

This was new to me a Djin? Really? But Every but everyone ran to fire base like it was part of the plan. When we got there the bard cast facinate on the fire elementals. Suddenly, the fire elementals were NOT facinated and they started spewing fire everywhere and people started dying -- FAST!

Now normaly when someone dies I use my pos/pos greensteel to give them a raise dead. But there's so much fire and death going on I decide to the real healers cast True Res so the poor sponges have a chance to survive.

Things go badly, and it looks to me like it's gonna be a TPK, I fail an evasion save and see for the first time how Epic! this firestorm is. 300 HP gone in one shot, leaving me a mere 200 HP away from death.

By this time there's only four survivors and the field is littered with soul stones. The monk was almost dead and the healers were fighting a losing battle to get everyone alive again.

I got hit again, and had to self heal. Now I realize that I can't keep this up forever. I panic, I gotta do something NOW, but what?

I try to remember the plan. The bard will facinate the elementals. Don't hit them. Take down the Djin.

Aha! That's it! The other melee guy is running away from the Djin but I've got my full healthbar back. I toss him some heals but he's still too scared to finish our mission -- take down the Djin!

It's up to me! Only I can save the raid! With my lightning dwarf axe raised in defiance I charge and deftly destroy the devilish djin!

But even after it's dead the fire elementals are still unfacinated and too dangerous for me to hang out with. So I kill them too, or at least die trying.

In retrospect, it was the fault of that other guy for using a shield and dwarf axe and de-facinating all the fire elementals in the first place.

But even so, I should have known better. I should have kept the golden rules of DDO. Don't touch it, don't open it, don't kill it unless you know what you're doing!

Friday, May 13, 2011

I got my Tower of Despair ring (Kilau's Band) and pulled a Shimmering Arrowhead on the same day! I pulled the arrowhead on my third Weapons Shipment run, and then my very next quest was ToD where I was the only one to roll on it (I was the only Tempest III).

Now I've got an extra +5 to hit, 1d4 slashing damage with melee weapons and crippling applied to ranged attacks.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

My Dorf Axes are somewhat affected by the nerf but I am so glad I didn't invest on a double shard greensteel Heavy Pick! Best of all, Rangers are only slightly nerfed by increased SP costs for spells they share with casters. I'm not excited about deconstructing yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing less Firewall. Here's to update 9!

Friday, March 11, 2011

I've played this game ever since it went free to play (F2P) I've been rewarded with free Turbine points. I've bought Halls of Shan to Kor, Delera's Tomb, Vault of Night, Gianthold, Vale of Twilight and Devils of Shavrath all without spending so much as a penny of real world money. By Gygax it's been fun! But that's all behind me now I've found something even better. Goodbye DDO F2P, and hellooo DDO P2P!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

I'm looking forward to TRing with an odd mix of joy and trepidation. I'm really looking forward to hitting the mid level quests again and getting a break from the High Level content where everything has too many hitpoints, but I also remember how difficult the grind was around level 15, and all the Greensteel I want to farm, and I wonder if I should get another level 20 on Orien before I TR. I'm leaning towards getting a third slot so I can have a lowby favor farmer. I like the lowbie quests and they're quick enough that I can play through when I have a spare moment.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Huzzah! I won a free hat: a Dread Admiral's Hat. I've upgraded Haste IV, +6 Seeker, +15 Jump but the best thing about it is that it transforms my off-white chainmail from drab to fab. The only thing missing is the dreads.